1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system comprising an information terminal, a printer server, and an image forming device, a control method and a program of the printing system, and a print medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been conventionally used a print environment where an information terminal such as a PC, a printer server, and an image forming device are connected on a network. For example, as Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-105937, there is a pull printing system in which a user specifies a target print job among a group of print jobs on an operation panel of the image forming device which the user inputs from the information terminal to the printer server for printing. This printing system has an advantage that the user can print with an image forming device at an outside location at any time even if the information terminal is placed far from the image forming device.
In this printing system, PDL (Page Description Language) data and print settings are in advance contained in a print job which are input to the printer server from the information terminal and such a print job is saved in the printer server. The image forming device rasterizes the PDL data according to the print setting to generate a raster image which is printed on a print paper. The print settings include settings reflected upon rasterizing the PDL data and settings reflected upon printing the raster image on the print paper. The settings reflected upon rasterizing the PDL data include, for example, a print quality setting, an enlargement/reduction setting, an imposition setting, an image size, and the like. The settings reflected upon printing the raster image obtained by the rasterizing include, for example, a print quality setting, a paper size setting, an output tray setting, an enlargement/reduction setting, an imposition setting, a setting for the number of output copies, a sort setting, a double-side setting, a preview setting, and a finishing setting such as stapling or punching.
According to the conventional technology, however, upon specifying a print job in the printer server from the image forming device for printing, the print setting of the print job can not be changed at the image forming device. Therefore, for a user to change the print setting, it is required to once more input a print job in which the print setting has been changed from the information terminal to the printer server.
In regard to this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H10-312251 (1998) has proposed the technology that in a push print type printing system in which a raster image generated from PDL data at a printer server and print settings are stored in the printer server and the raster image and the print settings are transmitted to an image forming device, the print settings are changeable. One specific technique is that, after the image forming device receives the raster image and the job settings from the printer server, the job settings are changed on an operation panel in the image forming device. Another is that the print settings are changed on an operation panel of the printer server, and then the raster image and the changed print settings are transmitted to the image forming device.
However, according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H10-312251 (1998), even if any of both the techniques is adopted, the print settings are supposed to be changed after the PDL data are rasterized in the printer server. Therefore, this patent document has a problem that the print settings upon printing the image on a print paper can be changed, but the print settings reflected upon rasterizing the PDL data can not be changed. When the print settings are forcibly changed, and for example, the raster image after its rasterization is enlarged/reduced, an image quality such as a font is degraded. To enlarge/reduce the raster image without degrading the image quality such as the font, it is required to change the print setting of the enlargement/reduction at rasterizing.
In a case of changing the print setting in the image forming device, the raster image is temporarily spooled into a HDD (Hard Disk Drive) in the image forming device and thereafter, the print setting is changed therein. Therefore, all the raster images are read out again from the HDD at the time of printing. Because of it, there is another problem that a throughput from a point of receiving the print job to a point of completing the print is degraded, thus making the high speed processing difficult. Further, since a larger storage capacity is inevitably needed, it is difficult to change the print setting in the image forming device with a low capacity of the HDD.
In a case of changing the print setting in the printer server, a user is required to operate the operation panel in the printer server. However, this technique does not allow an advantage of the pull printing system to be realized. That is, this technique is established assuming that the printer server is placed near the image forming device and therefore, is not a practical and effective measure.